Numbers 1:24

לִבְנֵי גָד תּוֹלְדֹתָם לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתָם לְבֵית אֲבֹתָם בְּמִסְפַּר שֵׁמוֹת מִבֶּן עֶשְׂרִים שָׁנָה וָמַעְלָה כֹּל יֹצֵא צָבָֽא׃

Hebrew interlinear

Tap a word to see its entry

The same verse in five languages

Hebrew

לִבְנֵ֣י גָ֔ד תּוֹלְדֹתָ֥ם לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתָ֖ם לְבֵ֣ית אֲבֹתָ֑ם בְּמִסְפַּ֣ר שֵׁמ֗וֹת מִבֶּ֨ן עֶשְׂרִ֤ים שָׁנָה֙ וָמַ֔עְלָה כֹּ֖ל יֹצֵ֥א צָבָֽא׃

Greek (Septuagint)

Τοῖς υἱοῖς Ἰούδα κατὰ συγγενίας αὐτῶν, κατὰ δήμους αὐτῶν, κατ’ οἴκους πατριῶν αὐτῶν, κατὰ ἀριθμὸν ὁ αὐτῶν, κατὰ κεφαλὴν αὐτῶν, πάντα ἀρσενικὰ ἀπὸ εἰκο καὶ ἐπάνω, πᾶς ὁ ἐκπορευόμενος ἐν τῇ δυνάμει·

Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0

Latin (Vulgate)

De filiis Gad per generationes et familias ac domos cognationum suarum recensiti sunt per nomina singulorum a viginti annis et supra, omnes qui ad bella procederent,

Spanish

De los hijos de Gad, sus generaciones, por sus familias, por las casas de sus padres, según el número de los nombres, de veinte años para arriba, todos los que podían salir a la guerra:

Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)

De los hijos de Gad, por sus generaciones, por sus familias, por las casas de sus padres, conforme á la cuenta de los nombres, de veinte años arriba, todos los que podían salir á la guerra;

English

From the sons of Gad, according to the records of their clans and families, counting the names of all those twenty years of age or older who could serve in the army,

What the text says

Summary

This verse describes the census procedure applied to the descendants of Gad: they are counted by toledot ("genealogies", H8435), by mishpachot ("clans", H4940), and by beit avotam ("house of their ancestors", H1004M/H0001G), tallying names of every male twenty years old and up who is fit to go out to war (yotze tzava, H3318N/H6635H).

Key words

  • v.Nei ("[the] descendants of", H1121G) — construct plural noun linking directly to Gad, marking the whole verse as belonging to this specific tribal group.
  • tol.do.Ta(m) ("genealogies", H8435) — feminine plural construct with 3rd person plural suffix "their," indicating the genealogical line traced for the group as a collective.
  • mis.Par ("[the] number of", H4557) — construct singular noun governing she.Mot ("names", H8034), expressing that the count is done by enumerating individual names, not just totals.
  • Ben ("a son of", H1121L) — construct singular used idiomatically with a number ('es.Rim, "twenty", H6242) to express age, a Hebrew idiom literally "son of twenty years."
  • yo.Tze' ("[one who] goes forth", H3318N) — Qal participle construct, describing an ongoing capacity or role ("the one going out"), here qualifying who is eligible for military service via the following noun tza.Va' ("warfare", H6635H).

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence is built almost entirely of construct chains, a fact the English glosses render as "of" phrases: li-v.Nei Gad ("of/for the sons of Gad") governs the subsequent series toledotam, mishpechotam, beit avotam — genealogies, clans, ancestral house — each bearing the 3rd person masculine plural suffix "their" (-m, H9028), which ties every category back to the sons of Gad as the antecedent. This layered construct structure reflects a hierarchical counting method: individuals are situated within households, households within clans, and clans within the larger genealogical line of the tribe.

The phrase mi-Ben 'esrim shanah va-ma'lah ("from a son of twenty years and up") uses the idiom ben + number to express age, and the vav-conjunction with the directional he in ma'lah ("up," H4605+H9011) marks an open-ended upper bound. The final phrase, kol yotze tzava ("every one going out to warfare"), uses a Qal active participle in construct form, describing not a completed action but an ongoing functional status — those who are, in a durative sense, "goers-out" for military service.

Differences between versions

The LXX text supplied here reads "Τοῖς υἱοῖς Ἰούδα" ("to the sons of Judah") where the Hebrew has v.Nei Gad ("descendants of Gad"). This is a divergence in the tribal name between the Hebrew and this Greek witness; the Vulgate ("De filiis Gad") and modern translations (BSB, RV1909, SBLIBRE) agree with the Hebrew reading of "Gad."

This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.